


Colours

by inabodycastofglass



Series: Soulmates. [3]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-06
Updated: 2016-04-06
Packaged: 2018-05-31 16:52:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6478210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inabodycastofglass/pseuds/inabodycastofglass
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nico finds a pattern in the colours of peoples souls.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Colours

**Author's Note:**

> Another soulmate AU, based on this post: http://half-bloodcanons.tumblr.com/post/128437546502/nico-can-see-souls-this-is-pretty-much-common

Nico wasn’t an idiot. He knew he had a crush on Will. And he also knew, like when he developed a crush on Percy, that he knew nothing about him.

He was a soft blue, easy on Nico’s eyes, the colour Percy would have wanted to be. It was beautiful, and he could have stared at that light drifting off his skin like mist all day.

But it just reminded him of his own blankness.

Everyone else had someone who’s colour matched theirs. 

Someone out there was a soft blue.

Will’s soulmate.

One of Nico’s Mythomagic cards had a figure of a four-armed, four-legged, two-headed person on it. It doubled the attack of certain cards, as long as you had two of them. It was the Greek origin of soulmates.

The story struck a cord with Nico. He liked the idea that there was someone out there for everyone. Even after he burnt all his other cards, he always kept that one tucked away in the bottom of his pocket.

He kept it even after Percy broke his heart.

And now the same thing was happening again, and it felt less like hope, and more like taunting.

Will had a soulmate, just like Percy, just like Jason, just like Reyna. Everyone had one. Everyone except Nico.

He stared at his own hands while Will chattered to him. There was nothing, just his skin, pale and yellow-green.

Will’s colour reached for him, and Nico had seen it before; when Percy and Annabeth stood near each other, when Jason and Piper spoke, when Hazel and Frank held hands. Even if they weren’t soulmates, if they liked each other, their colours would reach out to mix. And that was so much worse.

Nico wanted to try being with Will. But how could he when he knew it would end, that they were setting themselves up for failure. When Will would eventually find his soulmate and leave him, or stay out of some obligation. Could he really keep him from someone who could really make him happy for his own selfish purposes

No. Not even he was that awful. He’d let Will be happy without him.

“What is it?”

He looked back down at his hands. “Nothing. What were you saying about Lou Ellen cursing Cecil?”

Will continued, waving his hands, and Nico made himself think about something less cruel.

Nico followed Piper around for several minutes, waiting for her to be alone, which seemed nearly impossible. She always had someone around, weather it be a sibling or another camper. If she wasn’t directly with someone, she was in a public place.

Someone pointed him out to her, and he tried to hide, but his thoughts had his reflexes slow.

“Nico?”

He stopped mid turn and swirled back. “Hi.”

“Jason’s at the training field.” She pointed in the direction of it.

“No, that’s…” He looked down and kicked passively at the dirt.

He and Piper rarely spoke, and only with Jason or someone else there. And she didn’t particularly like him, finding him as creepy as everyone else. He knew this was a mistake.

“Never mind.” He turned again to leave.

“Did you want to talk about something?”

He stopped, still facing away from her. His shoulders slumped and he gave a single nod.

“All right. Let’s go somewhere more private.”

He nodded and followed her.

She sat on a fallen log in a small clearing, close enough to the lake to hear the water and the nymphs laughing. She pat the spot next to her.

He took it, staring at his lap, pretending not to see the way she looked at him.

“So what’s up? I assume this has something to do with a girl if you’re coming to me.”

He stiffened and she leant away from him. He turned his face away to hide how red it was, but he could feel the heat down his neck. “Not exactly.”

“Oh?” She paused. “Oh. I see.”

There was another pause and Nico’s legs twitched with an urge to run that he almost obliged.

“So who is he?”

He swallowed, though his mouth was dry. “Will.”

Piper laughed and Nico wheeled to face her. She tried to look at him, but she burst into another round of giggles, putting the back of her hand to her lips. “I’m sorry, I’m not laughing at you.”

That’s certainly what it felt like.

“It’s just that, when you said it was a boy, he’s the first one I thought of. Then Jason, but I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t be coming to me if that were the case.”

He made a face at that, and she grinned.

“So.” She put her palms together and smooshed them between her knees, elbows locked. “What’s the problem? I think it’s pretty obvious he likes you.”

“That’s not…” He drew his shoulders forward, slouching, palms firmly on the log on either side of his thighs. “It’s complicated.”

Piper looked at the sky. “We have plenty of time before dinner.”

Nico sighed and spilled his entire story. About Percy, about Will, about his own blankness. The only thing he left out was the dark purple he sometimes saw when he closed his eyes, and how he would wonder what person would never meet Bianca.

“Wow.” Piper looked own, her expression matching Nico’s. “I see why you came to me.” She took a breath, leaning forward, sliding her arms so her chest was pressed to her thighs and her knees were smooshing her elbows. “I wonder why you have this power instead of one of us.”

“I think it might be their soul. Since I’m a child of Hades, I can see it. Though, I don’t know why they’re colours.”

“Maybe it’s you, the way you see them.”

“Maybe…”

“You know, I don’t think this matters as much as you’re making it out to.”

He looked to her, his eyes wide. “What do you mean?”

She smiled at him before sitting up and stretching her arms above her head. “It feels like we’ll live forever, especially after surviving what we have. It’s suppose to, we’re young. We fell invincible.” She leant back on her hands. “But we’re not. We could all die at any moment. That’s what being a demigod means. You probably know that better than all of us.”

He grunted, not wanting to put a voice to his confirmation.

“So right now might be all we have.” She pulled her knees up, wrapping her arms around them and lacing her fingers. “I would love to think that I’ll grow old with Jason, and sometimes I do, but the reality is probably so much more bleak.” She rolled her head back to look at the sky. In the distance they could see the colours changing. But she kept her eyes on the daylight blue. “But I think that’s why were so passionate.”

He pulled his knees up like her, grabbing his ankles. “I don’t understand.”

The way she looked at him said she knew he did, but she humoured him. “Will may die without ever meeting his soulmate. Or they could be married with children. Or they could just not love him. It’s really up to the two of you to decide if this is something you want to risk or not.” She smiled. “Is he worth it?”

Nico got to his feet, shaky, breathless. He looked to Piper, who had slid her feet back to the ground and was looking up at him.

“Thanks.”

She shrugged and stood with a fluid motion that made him envious. “Of course. I’m a daughter of Aphrodite. It’s what I do. Gotta play to my skills.”

He paused as she walked ahead, watching her. She only got a few steps before turning back to him. “You coming?”

“Don’t you want to know?”

She put her hands behind her back, twisting her wrists together, and lacing her fingers. “No. I love Jason. What may happen in the future, and whoever else is out there are inconsequential. Now come on.” She jerked her head in the direction of the main part of camp. “It’s dinner time and I’m starving.”

He followed, and the two of them talked, conversation coming easy.

They ignored Jason’s questioning look, Piper slipping an arm easily around his waist, his arm wrapping around her shoulders like it was an instinct.

He imagined this ease with Will, and his heart gave a forceful beat. He locked eyes with Piper and she nodded.

He excused himself and ran to the infirmary, where he knew Will had dinner duty.

He found him alone, by some miracle of the gods, and stood at the door as it closed behind him.

Will had started to say something as he looked up, but stopped when he saw Nico, grinning.

That was for him. That smile and that glow was for him, not some soulmate that he may or may not someday meet.

“What’s up, Death Boy?”

Nico gave a half-hearted, “don’t call me that,” before breaking out into a rarely used grin.

Will rolled his eyes. “What has you so happy?”

Nico’s legs and hands shook, and his heart beat so fast and so hard he could feel his pulse in his neck and a tingle in his fingertips. He looked above Will’s head to that blue, still pulling toward him, trying to get to him, and he strode across the room.

He took Will’s arm, just below his elbow, and pulled him forward. His other hand trailed over his neck and slid into his hair, and Nico pulled him down, standing on his toes to meet him as they kissed.

Will gasped, then his hands wrapped around Nico’s waist, and he pulled him closer.

He twisted and pushed Nico with his whole body, and the two of them fell into one of the beds, coming apart as they bounced.

Will burst into laughter, and Nico followed, hysteric with embarrassment.

He kissed Nico again, but they were both laughing to hard, and it was all teeth.

He put his head to Nico’s chest, right against his frantic heart, and held his waist like a vice. “Finally.” He buried his face in Nico’s shirt and took a deep breath. “I was starting to think you didn’t like me.”

Nico laughed. He put one hand between Will’s shoulder blades and curled the other around his head. He stopped just before curling his fingers into his hair.

“Will.”

He hummed.

“Get off me for a sec.”

Will frowned up at him, rolling away.

Nico stood and walked to the other side of the room, staring at his hand. He twisted it, then looked at the other. He looked at Will, his blue reaching toward Nico, but not touching him. He looked back at his hands.

Blue.

He felt himself tearing up.

“Nico?” Will got to his feet and started toward him, then stopped, uncertain. “Are you okay?”

Nico looked over at him, then smiled, his first tear falling. “I’m so, so good.” He reached his hand out to him.

Will took it, and Nico saw their blue’s mix, exactly the same, one bleeding into the other seamlessly, no way to tell where Will ended and Nico began.

Will wrapped his arm around Nico’s waist again, pulling him to his chest, his other hand curling into his hair.

Nico fisted Will’s shirt in both hands, burying his face into his chest, and taking a deep breath of Will’s scent.

He had a soulmate.

Even better, it was Will. And he was perfect.

It was cruel, not knowing his colour until now. If he’d known, he wouldn’t have waited so long. But maybe it was better this way. He would have always wondered if he liked him because he was suppose to. This way he knew it was because it was Will, and he just did.

A laughed bubbled up, mixing with his sobs, and Will hugged him tighter.

He looked up, drawing Will’s attention, and he took the front of his shirt, twisting it around his hand, and drew him down into another kiss.

He felt Will smile, and smiled back, laughing again.

They continued on that way until someone walked in on them, shrieking. Then they just laughed without the kisses.


End file.
